Pretty much every website has one, you know, those three little lines, usually tucked in a corner, hiding a whole menu behind them. It's become what's known as the hamburger icon. And if you've ever visited fontawesome.com, you may have noticed ours isn't three lines. It's an actual burger, sesame seed bun and all.

On this episode of Podcast Awesome, we trace the icon back to a 1981 Xerox Star screen-space problem, through a 20-year disappearance, a comeback on the first iPhone, and a decade of top UX researchers telling designers to knock it off. And you could probably have guessed it, but the sandwich won anyway. Then we get to why Font Awesome designer Brian Talbot looked at the safe, conventional three-line icon, asked "where's the beef?!" and used the FA-burger icon in the most delicious way possible.

What We Cover

• How a 1981 screen-space problem at Xerox PARC turned into three stacked lines
• Norm Cox, the designer behind the original icon, and how he didn't even know it was called "hamburger" until a reporter called him decades later
• The icon's 20-year disappearance and its comeback on the first iPhone
• The Nielsen Norman Group research showing how hidden menus cut discoverability almost in half
• Why the same research group came back a decade later and declared the icon a win anyway
• Why Font Awesome's own menu icon isn't three lines but an illustrated burger, courtesy of Brian Talbot

Timestamps 00:00 – A burger on our own website 

00:01 – Welcome to Podcast Awesome 00:02 – Norm Cox and the Xerox Star 00:03 – "Road sign simple": Cox's design philosophy 

00:04 – The hamburger menu resurfaces on the first iPhone 

00:05 – Apple, Google, and a name nobody planned 

00:06 – The UX community picks a fight 

00:07 – Nielsen Norman Group's discoverability research 

00:08 – "Like a cheap fast food chain..." 

00:09 – A decade later: the hamburger icon wins anyway 

00:10 – Norm Cox on symbols that improve with time 

00:11 – Font Awesome's actual burger icon, courtesy of Brian Talbot 

00:13 – Wrap-up and credits

Links

• Get the burger icon: 
• Act 1 — The Origin
•  A Conversation with Norm Cox, Creator of the Hamburger Menu — Tri Vo, Mic Product Blog
• Act 3 — The Controversy
•  Hamburger Menus and Hidden Navigation Hurt UX Metrics — Nielsen Norman Group
• Hamburger Menu and UX Design — UXPin
• Act 4 — The Verdict
•  Hamburger Menu Icon Recognizability — Nielsen Norman Group, 2026
• Background / Research Reading
•  The History of the Hamburger Icon — Eternity Marketing

Credits 

• Hosted, produced, and edited by Matt Johnson 
• Theme song by Ronnie Martin 
• Music interstitials by Zach Malm 
• Video editing by Isaac Chase

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